ROTTEN TOMATOES: Zhang Yimou to Enlist 20,000 Soldiers for His Next Epic

Zhang Yimou to Enlist 20,000 Soldiers for His Next Epic

by RT Staff | January 31, 2006

Discuss Article | Blog Article | Email To A Friend

Coming off the quiet "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles," director Zhang Yimou will use 20,000 Chinese soldiers as extras when he begins shooting "Autumn Remembrance" in February, producers said.

For a Chinese film, the budget also is super-sized at 360 million yuan ($44 million), topping the $30 million spent by director Chen Kaige on "Master of the Crimson Armor," China's official submission for the upcoming Academy Awards and the most expensive Chinese film made to date.

To be co-produced by Hong Kong hitmaker Bill Kong ("House of Flying Daggers," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), "Remembrance" will star Chow Yun-Fat. Negotiations with Gong Li for another key role are under way.

The film marks the first collaboration between Zhang and Gong since "Shanghai Triad" in 1995.

"Remembrance" takes its Chinese title, "Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia," (The city is filled with golden armor) from a poem written by the leader of a peasant uprising in the late Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-906), New Pictures Film Co. general manager Yu Yuxin said.

"The title was chosen for its splendor, but the poem has little to do with the story," she said, declining to reveal details about what is said to be the tale of an ill-fated court romance.

Qin Lixin, New Pictures deputy general manager, said that China's Film Bureau has approved the script and shooting will begin in southwest China's Sichuan Province by the end of February.

The soldiers from China's People's Liberation Army, the largest standing army in the world, won't step in front of the camera until the production moves to Yunnan and Zhejiang provinces, New Pictures president Zhang Weiping told Chinese Web portal Sina.com.

"We decided this would be the best way to manage such a huge cast, a first for a commercial picture in China," he said.

About 1,000 PLA extras were employed by Chen on "Crimson Armor," a film met by mixed reviews that saw its deal for international English-language distribution fall apart in December when the Weinstein Co. and IDG backed out of the deal they signed at Cannes in May.

Producer Zhang said that Gong has not yet signed her contract but said he was confident that she would because the script had been tailor-made for her for more than 10 years.

An unnamed Hollywood company has signed to help with the stunts, and postproduction will be done in Australia, producer Zhang said, adding that he expects "Remembrance" to outsell "Hero," the first Chinese film to top the U.S. boxoffice, earning $53 million in its 2004 run.

Source: Backstage.com's Jonathan Landreth

Related Items

Movie:	Shanghai Triad
	House of Flying Daggers

Celeb:	Yun-Fat Chow
	Gong Li
	Yimou Zhang
	Chen Kaige
	Bill Kong

(1-9 of 9 posts) | Reply

eye_see writes:
on Jan 31 2006 04:50 AM

The difference between China and the west.

In the west, "Screw that, just get the CGI people to make some stuff up."

In China, "Hmm, do you think 20,000 will be enough or should we get more."

(Reply to this)

lonechicken writes:
on Jan 31 2006 05:50 AM

Well, I'd assume it's cheap over there. 20,000 soldiers in CGI, produced in America or down under, would be cheaper than trying to herd around a bunch of real people.

(Reply to this)

admira_thrawn writes:
on Jan 31 2006 08:37 AM

Well, if it is from the director of Hero I'll deffinately catch this movie.

But, wow, 44 million is the most expensive Chinese film ever? Nice that they arn't wasteful like Hollywood.

(Reply to this)

trapyoung writes:
on Jan 31 2006 09:08 AM

but doesn't there seem like the Hollywood tendency to spend more and more on "should be blockbusters" is starting to happen in the west, possible grounds for concern?

(Reply to this)

Callpacas writes:
on Jan 31 2006 09:20 AM

living costs are low in China...that's why everything so cheap there. And please don;t move Hollywood to china...

(Reply to this)

hattori hanzo writes:
on Jan 31 2006 07:17 PM

ok this is amazing, twenty thousand REAL soldiers in a battle sequence, this must be the biggest ensemble of extras to ever appear on the big silver, it will bad amazing to actually see twenty thousand people charge another huge amount. This is twice the number of the CGI army from the Two Towers which was ambitious in its own right. But this is far more epic of scope that has ever been before. I hope Yimou realizes that he could easily make the greatest war epic of all time and keep it that way until the end of time. His vision is almost unrivalled in the long list of Chinese directors; this must be the most ambitious movie anyone from Asia has ever taken on. (I hear the battles from Ran are unapperalled when it comes to Asian cinema, maybe this will beat them)

(Reply to this)

insanemansam5 writes:
on Jan 31 2006 08:04 PM

Zhang Yimou really has become the director people thought Ang Lee would be after CTHD. This sounds like it's going to rock.

(Reply to this)

Broken Sword writes:
on Jan 31 2006 10:38 PM

Anyone seen Yimou's earlier film "To Live" ? There was an impressive shot of a 100 soldiers or so running over a distant hill. Guess we can look forward to more of that !

I just hope he won't mimick anything from Chen Kaige's lastest stinker "The Promise" Awful. Simply awful.

(Reply to this)

lonechicken writes:
on Feb 01 2006 06:31 AM

Ang Lee's just too intentionally diverse to pigeonhole himself into one genre. I wouldn't be surprised if he's got a musical and a gross-out Farrely Brothers type movie up his sleeve.

(Reply to this)